Your Psychology Psychology articles and news

New research expands on current understanding of the brain chemical dopamine, finding that it plays a role in reducing the value of memories associated with rewards. The study opens new avenues for understanding dopamine’s role in the brain.

For college athletes with concussion, brain changes may remain visible in brain scans up to a year after they are cleared to return to play, according to a new study.

Neuroscientists have found a link between vocal changes and the aging brain in zebra finch songbirds, which could help lead to earlier diagnoses for disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases in people.

We’re all familiar with Pavlovian conditioning, in which a reward-anticipatory behavior follows a reward-predicting stimulus. Perhaps you experience it yourself when passing a cafe or restaurant and catching a whiff of something delectable. Behind this…

Our brains use basic ‘building blocks’ of information to keep track of how people interact, enabling us to navigate complex social interactions, finds a new study.

A simple neural change alters mating preferences in male butterflies, aiding rapid behavioral evolution, researchers report.

Parenting skills can make a big difference in fostering a newborn’s language acquisition and cognition, but there may be a limit to how far parenting can go to make up the challenges to developing this skill in those born in highly disadvantaged backgr…

Researchers found new insights on the timing of prenatal stress and its effect on infant stress reactivity and temperament — including differences between genders.

A research team has uncovered key insights into how the brain processes others’ distress. Using miniature endoscopic calcium imaging, the researchers identified specific neural ensembles in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) that encode empathic freez…

New research has revealed that people often do not perceive the true meaning of their pet’s emotions and can misread their dog. The reasons for this are many and include a human misunderstanding of dog expressions due to a bias towards projecting human…